


Things We Lost in the Fire

by butter_makes_the_world_go_round



Series: She’s Fucking Dead [1]
Category: She’s Fucking Dead
Genre: I'm gonna try to do a thing, Mayhaps, Original Characters - Freeform, Original Story - Freeform, Will it work?, You know what’s gonna happen?, because I don’t even know what’s gonna happen okay, lets just fuckin roll with it, no, original fucking whatever, told in the first person sorry bout it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 13:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20967608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butter_makes_the_world_go_round/pseuds/butter_makes_the_world_go_round
Summary: Santiago honestly didn’t think he would ever be grateful for an attempted robbery but...y’know...life is funny like that.





	Things We Lost in the Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PrincessMuk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessMuk/gifts).

Pickpocketing wasn’t something I was ever really worried about. I figured I should have been, since I had lived in the city my whole life, but I had one of those thief proof bags so I never really thought about it. This was until I was run over on the sidewalk by someone who had gotten his wallet stolen. Although, I would like to point out that I had been living in the city for 28 years and this was only the second time that had happened to me.

The man who knocked me over was in pursuit of a small girl who was trying to shove her way through the crowd. She heard us fall, and in her desperation to get away, tried to jump a low brick wall between the people on the sidewalk and the entrance to a parking garage. However, being very small, she just fell.

I managed to get to my feet before the other man did, and I stumbled over to the girl in an attempt to help. You know, doing the right thing and all that. Her wrist looked very bad. It was bent in a way that wrists are not meant to bend. She flinched back when she saw me. She looked terrified as tears streaked down her face. The wallet lay abandoned on the sidewalk.

I heard the man storming toward us, and the girl glanced behind me. She gave me a look of pure desperation, and I snatched up the wallet.

“Is this yours?” I stood up and turned to the man. His chest was heaving as he glanced behind me at the girl. He snatched it out of my hands. He and I held eye contact for a moment before he tried to look at the girl again. I stepped to the side to block his view, and thank god he took the hint.

I’m not a small guy. I’m tall and broad shouldered. I look like a NFL player, frankly. This works to my advantage in situations like this, so I try not to be too upset when I have to duck to fit through doorways.

After we had a staring contest, he huffed and went about his day, shoving his wallet right back in his pocket. I turned back to the girl, who still sat on the concrete. She cradled her wrist close to her chest and sniffled as I made my way back over to her. I crouched beside her and she immediately started sobbing.

“Please don’t arrest me!” She cried. “I’m sorry I took his money! I won’t do it again, I swear! I was—I needed it for—I didn’t want—I didn’t want to steal but I—I was just hungry!” She pleaded, gasping and sniffling and stuttering the whole way.

I shushed her gently and held out my hand to her, “it’s alright. You don’t have to be afraid of me, I’m not going to arrest you. I’m not even a cop.” I smiled, and that seemed to ease her nerves a bit.

“I...what are you going to do with me?” She asked slowly, as if she already knew the answer. Obviously, she didn’t not.

“I just want to help,” I said. She didn’t seem to believe me. “Can you tell me your name?”

“I can,” she said.

“Do you want to?”

“No.”

I laughed. “Well, that's going to make this a little harder.” She cracked a smile and wiped her face with the back of her good hand. “Right,” I said and stood up. I held out my hand to her. “Come on. We should go get that wrist checked out.”

She just kinda stared at me for a moment. Then, she sniffed again and took my hand. I pulled her up and looked around. “I can’t...go to a doctor,” She muttered.

“Why not?”

“My mom said I don’t have a doctor number.” She wiped her face again.

“Oh I see,” I said and glanced up and down the street. I looked down at her again. It was cold, and she wore ripped jeans and an old hoodie that was obviously much too small. Her shoes were falling apart, and she didn’t have any socks. Her hair was a wild cloud of black curls, and her dark skin was covered in scrapes and scars and dark freckles dotted over her nose. “How old are you?” I asked.

She sniffed again. “I’m nine,” she muttered.

“Where are your parents?” I asked, and she physically recoiled.

“They...I don’t know, now. I was...running.” She gestured vaguely after the man who she had attempted to steal from. “they...I don’t think they’ll come after me, though.”

“What? Why?” I asked, crouching down to her level. She looked away from me.

“I mean...they always talk about how they want to get rid of me. They’re mean to me, and I don’t like them,” she glared at the sidewalk. “But they said, if I run away they’ll call the police and they’ll take me to jail. And I don’t want to go to jail. My uncle said it’s worse than hell in there.” she sniffed again and rubbed her nose. She breathed out violently through her mouth, and I figured maybe her wrist wasn’t all that needed treatment. It was well into fall, and her clothes hardly looked warm.

I could hear my sister’s voice in my mind: “Santi, you’re too nice, you know? You can hardly take care of a cat, let alone a child! Just turn her over to the police and they’ll take care of her, don’t get yourself mixed up in another person who’s just going to take your kindness for granted.”

But...I could help this girl! It’s not like I was broke, I could definitely afford another person. My apartment wasn’t small, I just had to rearrange some stuff. It would...it would be fine, I could do it.

“Alright,” I huffed, rubbing my hands together. “You don’t have to tell me your name now, but I will need one later. My name is Santiago,” I smiled down at her. She smiled a little.

“I like your name.”

“I like it, too.” She giggled at that. “Come on, we’re gonna get you to a clinic. Then we’re gonna see what we can do about those clothes.” She looked down at her clothes and wrinkled her nose.

“But...I can’t go to doctors,” she reminded me. I held out my hand, but she didn’t take it. So I started down the sidewalk, and she followed.

“You don’t really need a number to go to the doctor. Not legally. They’ll ask for it, but you don’t actually have to have one.” I smirked down at her. “Don’t worry, I’m a doctor.”

Her face lit up, “you are?!”

I laughed and nodded. “Yes—“

“What kind?” She bounced at my side and I laughed again.

“I’m a physical therapist. I help people who have been hurt be able to move better and manage their pain.”

“Oh,” she said, “so you’re not like a real doctor?”

“What?” I looked down and she was smirking up at me. “Of course I am! I just don’t do all the messy stuff.” She giggled.

“That sounds kinda lame.”

“You’re kinda lame.” I shot back and she devolved into giggles. It was probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

We stopped in front of my apartment building and she gasped when I told her I lived there. “You live here?” She shouted, “thats so cool! Are you rich?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘rich’ but I’m pretty well off.” I smirked as we made our way down to the garage. Now, I may have had a fair bit of money in my pocket, but I could never bring myself to buy a really nice car. I didn’t trust myself with one at all. So she was pretty underwhelmed when I showed her a 2010 Ford Escape.

We climbed in and she stared around with wide eyes. “I’ve never been in the front seat before,” she whispered in awe. But she quickly came back to earth with the question I had been waiting for. “Why are you taking care of me? You gonna sell me or something?” Well, not quite what I was expecting. “Cause I’ll kill you, y’know. Don’t think I couldn’t just because you’re bigger then me.”

“WHAT?” I stared at her in shock. She was glaring at me. “Oh my god, no! I’m not-I’m-I’m not going to sell you! Why would you-“

“Cause people tried to do it before,” she muttered, staring at the floorboard. “My aunt tried to sell me and my cousin before.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed. Then a horrible thought crossed my mind. “Did you...did you kill her?”

“My uncle did,” she shrugged. “That’s why he went to jail.”

“Oh...fuck,” I breathed, and she laughed.

“Can we get some food, mister?” I blinked at her for a minute before turning back toward the wheel and buckling myself in.

“Yeah,” I muttered, “buckle up, I don’t want you to die.” She laughed again.

So after grabbing way too much Taco Bell and her making a mess in my car, we arrived at a clinic. I told them I was her cousin who had been watching her while her parents were away, and when they asked if they could call her parents she informed them that they did not own cellphones. I assured her I would pay for whatever treatment she needed and apparently that included a cast that covered her entire forearm.

The name she gave the doctor was Sabrina.

“I never had a cast before,” She muttered as we walked out. “It’s itchy.”

“We’ll get you a pencil later,” I said. She seemed confused but didn’t ask. She just continued to shove food in her mouth.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?” She asked.

“I’ll eat later,” I said, but she didn’t seem satisfied with this answer.

“You should eat,” she muttered, staring at one of the Taco Bell bags in the floor.

So, we folded down the back seats and had a mini picnic in the clinic parking lot. As we ate, she shuffled through the music on my phone and asked me what it was like to be rich.

“Do you have a Tv in your house?”

“I do.”

“I never had a Tv before. Can you watch cartoons?”

“I can.”

“That’s so cool! What’s your favorite cartoon?”

“Oh, it doesn’t run anymore.”

“What is it?”

“The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.”

She giggled, “it sounds silly.”

“It was.”

This was the quality of conversation for the hour that we sat in the back seat. We still sat and talked, even after all the food was gone. She was funny, and she likes to be funny. It seemed like she enjoyed making people laugh, but she could be serious when she wanted. I was extremely glad that her situation hadn’t snuffed out that spark of childhood in her.

As we were setting the seats back up, she looked at me for a long moment before asking: “can I stay with you, mister Santiago?” She rubbed her hands together and scuffed her feet against the pavement. I stopped what I was doing and walked over to her.

“Would that make you happy?” I asked slowly.

“I don’t want to go home. I want to stay with you. You’re nice to me.”

I stared at her for a long moment before sighing and rubbing my face. I smiled at her, and her face lit up with hope. “Okay, kid. I’ll try my hardest to make sure you don’t ever have to go back there,” I said softly, and she knocked the air out of me with a hug.

“Thank you.”

“Hey, it’s no problem. Oh, and by the way,” she looked nervous. “Is Sabrina your real name?”

She giggled, “no, that was my friend’s name.”

“So...who are you, then?”

She smiled all lopsided and said: “My name is Dani.”

**Author's Note:**

> Gifted this hot mess to @princessmuk cause I will always dedicate everything I write to her love that bitch what a queen  
Also the title is from a song of the same name by Bastille it’s great go listen to it


End file.
